Guest guest Posted April 3, 2000 Report Share Posted April 3, 2000 One of the first things a healer needs to do is to determine if the condition is Cold or Heat. So much of treatment will hinge on determining that. In general, you cool Hot conditions with herbs with Cool or Cold energy; you warm Cold conditions with herbs with Warm or Hot energy. In some cases you'll want to use the Cold or Hot energy herbs depending on the nature of the condition. In other cases it's better to use the ones with milder Warm or Cool energy. But this is a subject for another post. For now it's a good idea to stick with Warm or Cool herbs. I say " in general " because there are some exceptions. You usually will cool Hot conditions and warm Cold conditions. It is possible for a person to be both Hot and Cold. For example, some systems may be over-Heated while the person as a whole and the root of the main imbalance is due to Cold. As you learn more about TCM, you'll learn to recognize when this is happening and how to adjust treatment accordingly. Remember, there are guide herbs that will target specific systems and carry the effects of the other herbs in the formula to that particular system even though the other herbs don't usually target those systems. Sometimes whole areas of the body will differ greatly in temperature. For example, sometimes a person will be hot in the upper part of the body while the lower body is cold. You see this in cases of parasitic infection and in some cases of menopause. There also is such a thing as True Cold, False Heat and True Heat, False Cold. As you learn more and gain confidence you'll be able to spot these cases. They usually only occur when there's a severe imbalance. The symptom pattern will be mixed. For example, in cases of True Heat, False Cold, the surface of the body often is Cold to the touch, but the other symptoms are predominately those of Heat. What has happened in these cases is that the Heat is trapped deep inside and can't get to the surface of the body which feels cool or even cold to the touch. But other symptoms of Heat like the red tongue, the yellow tongue coating, the scanty & dark urine, the dry constipation, etc. will be present. Being able to spot cases of False Cold and Heat comes after becoming more familiar and comfortable with TCM. Victoria --== Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ ==-- Share what you know. Learn what you don't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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